


Hear Me Out

by kat8cha



Series: Life of Leia [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: FIGHT ME OVER THIS OKAY, Gen, Senator Lando Calrissian, Spoilers, set post TFA
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 13:58:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5629039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kat8cha/pseuds/kat8cha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lando calls after the madness has settled to talk to Leia, he's got an idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hear Me Out

She was tired, heart sick, and the only thing she wanted was a grand total of four hours where she could find peace and quiet. So Leia wasn’t all that surprised to find PZ-4CO outside the door of her quarters. Leia did a quick check and was glad to find the rest of the hallway deserted. PZ-4CO wouldn’t follow her into her quarters, not without a direct invitation, and while Leia wanted to avoid a confrontation with her she didn’t want to do it in front of the rest of the Resistance.

Or any of the Resistance. They gossiped worse than the Alliance ever had.

“Peazy.” The name was more of a sigh than anything else. 

“General Organa,” the blue plated droid motioned to the door to her quarters, “you have a request for a private conference.”

Leia did sigh this time. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. She… well, she couldn’t honestly say she wanted to be alone but unless her brother rounded the corner within the next five minutes alone was the next best option. “From?”

“Senator Calrissian of Bespin.” 

She blinked at PZ-4CO, slowly.

Lando.

She motioned towards her quarters. “Am I all set up to speak with him?”

She didn’t wait for PZ to stop nodding, instead she ducked past the tall blue droid and quickly shut the door behind her. The desk she took holos, voice calls and answered private correspondence was on the other side of the room, a small blue light blinked at her from the desktop. She let out a shaky breath.

Lando.

She had a bottle of Corellian brandy stored on her bookshelf for special occasions and for moments like this. For times when she had written too many condolences or please to the Senate. 

Well, she didn’t need to worry about the last one any more.

She poured a generous glass and sat down at her desk. After a swallow of brandy and a flick of a switch, a shimmer of blue filled the space in front of her. It coalesced quickly into a familiar face.

“Princess.” He greeted her with a smile. It was strained around the edges. While Leia had sharpened and Han had grizzled, his face had grown wider with age, not nearly as wrinkled. The charm was there still, in the smile, but he seemed tired as well.

“Lando.” She wondered if her smile was as pinched, as tired. “I…” She wasn’t sure what to say to him.

Have you heard?

With everything… with everything, she hadn’t even had time to think about a memorial ceremony for Han. 

“I heard.” Lando said. He raised a glass, almost a twin of her own, and she toasted him from the other side of the galaxy. “To Han.”

She felt tears prick her eyes as they both swallowed.

“How’s Chewie taking it?”

She set the glass down and did her best to blink the tears back. It worked in seconds, over the years she had gained quite the skill for holding back tears. “It’s hard to tell with Chewie. He spent a few days here on base before he headed off with,” with Rey, to find Luke, no, she’d keep that quiet, “the Falcon. I think he plans to distract himself by keeping busy.”

She had suggested he might take time to see his family on Kashyyyk, he had told her that Han would have wanted him to help Rey, to help her. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Chewbacca was worried about her. He’d always had more rebellious sympathies than Han, tough, so perhaps it wasn’t a surprise he had stayed. The Empire hadn’t been kind to wookies and she doubted the First Order would be.

“The Falcon?” Lando’s eyes widened in surprise. “I thought the old girl was lost.” 

“So did Han.” She laughed, just a bit, so had she. “He stumbled upon it off of Jakku.”

Aiding in a rescue mission.

She wanted suddenly, so deeply, to confide in Lando. The channels weren’t secure and while most of what had happened couldn’t, wouldn’t be, a secret… she would rather not endanger the three young people who had risked so much and saved so many. “How is Bespin?”

“Jakku, huh?” Was all Lando said, he looked off to the side (was someone there?) before he met her gaze again. “Bespin keeps spinning along, King Ozz is happy, the miners are happy.”

“Are you happy?” She asked, seeing through his bluster. She added a smile to soften the blow. While they weren’t as close as, say, Leia and Chewie, Lando had invaded the bliss of the Organa-Solo household on more than one occasion.

Lando shook his head slowly. “Are you?”

She sighed.

“Well, I’m happy I wasn’t on Hosnian Prime when… whatever that was.” And she could tell, he had a suspicion about what that was, all the Resistance had released was that Hosnian Prime had been attacked by the First Order and that the weapon they had used had been destroyed. There would be careful explorations taken of the Hosnian system to see if anyone, anything, had survived. Most of the galaxy was whispering about the First Order’s bigger, better Deathstar but few wanted to acknowledge it openly. Most were still waiting for news. “I’m glad you weren’t there either.”

“I haven’t been welcome at the Senate in years.” She said it with a laugh but her heart ached, she wished for Korr Sella’s company at her side, for the presence of friends lost to time and to war.

“That’s going to change.” Lando stated decisively. “There are a few of us who weren’t on Hosnian Prime when it was destroyed, enough for a few emergency decisions.”

Enough for them to rebuild. She nodded.

“We plan to move to Onderon.” He took a breath, this was the reason he had called, not to reminisce, not to find out about the Resistance or the Starkiller. “We were wondering if you would be interested in being named Chancellor.”

Her laugh this time was surprised and heartfelt. “Chancellor?” She was able to stop laughing to answer, but the laughter bubbled inside of her. It was a desperate laughter. “I’m not even a senator, Lando, I can’t be chancellor.” 

“The rules don’t say you have to be a senator.” Lando wheedled, it was clear he had looked for a loophole. “Just nominated by one. And you’re-“

“At the moment,” she cut him off, “at the moment, I’m needed here. The Resistance is our primary line of defense,” and offense, “against the First Order.”

He looked ready to say more. She knew if she let him… well, she’d always been a little weak to scoundrels. “Lando, I’ll think about it but right now… it’s not a decision I can make.”

Right now.

He nodded. “I’ll contact you in a few days, does that sound like enough time?”

She nodded. In a few days, well, in a few days she’d have figured out the right way to say no. The right suggestions to give so that someone who would listen to her but wasn’t actually her would be appointed.

“And princess,” one of the few men, one of the few people she would allow to call her that without sharp words or a slap, spoke softly, “I am sorry about Han.”

She lifted her glass with a wobbly smile. “Me too. Goodnight, Lando.”

**Author's Note:**

> I figure, Lando's can pretty much find a niche in the New Republic wherever he wants but he ends up back on Bespin because he LIKED Cloud City, alright. And somehow, somehow someone is like 'would you like to run for Senator' and gets elected and since he's pro-Leia (but not really pro-war) he's on the outs of the Senate. 
> 
> Also, did you know that the Senate in the New Republic basically just bounces the fuck around depending on who is Chancellor? So when they zapped Hosnian Prime the First Order might have obliterated a lot of the ruling body of the New Republic but, uh, probably not everyone. 
> 
> I have a [tumblr](kat8therude.tumblr.com), fyi.


End file.
